Gender harassment and discrimination is unfortunately not an uncommon occurrence in the gaming industry. Back in 2018, Riot Games was put in the spotlight with an exposé from Kotaku on its workplace toxicity and sexist "bro-culture." A class-action lawsuit was brought against the development company as a result of the sexual harassment, discrimination, and inequality that two employees had experienced. The most recent development in the Riot Games lawsuit has the company once again looking to settle the case out of the courts, and in private arbitration.

The case against Riot Games has been through a long and arduous process, but was thought to have reached a conclusion in December 2019, when it was reported that Riot would pay $10 million as a settlement to all the women employed at Riot since November 2014. However, in early 2020 the Californian Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) and Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) came out saying that due to the violations at Riot, the women should be entitled to about $400 million instead.

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With new legal counsel, the plaintiffs are pursuing the $400 million settlement, but Riot is now trying to push the case to private arbitration. This would effectively take the case out of the court system, and out of the public eye, to have a neutral party try and settle the case. Presumably, this is because Riot does not want to agree to a full $400 million settlement.

This is actually the second time that Riot has attempted to have this case settled out of the court system. In April 2019, Riot tried to force the plaintiffs into private arbitration, citing employment contract policies. However, after a staged walkout from several Riot employees, the company retracted its position. Private arbitration is often looked at as controversial in the first place, as workers are generally at a disadvantage. If Riot continues to push in this direction, it will not be surprising to see another protest against the practice.

In recent years, Riot Games has certainly made strides to improve the culture of its workplace and address issues of sexism and discrimination. Riot brought in Angela Roseboro as its Chief Diversity Officer in the midst of its workplace crisis, and she believes she has made progress in terms of inclusion and equality in the Riot workplace. Featured in the recent issue of Inclusion, Roseboro stated that her greatest success story so far has been improving the work environment at Riot Games, especially for women and other minorities.

The issues unfortunately extend into Riot's games as well, as League of Legends and Valorant are often thought to be very toxic games at times. On the bright side, Riot plans to deal with issues of sexual harassment in its games as well. Gender-based harassment is epidemic in the gaming industry, and there needs to be accountability. While the current lawsuit with Riot Games is yet to be resolved, one will just have to see which path it takes.

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Source: Marie Dealessandri via Gamesindustry.biz, Inclusion